While Glen Sather adheres to a self-imposed gag order at his southern California home, there is growing suspicion among a variety of interested parties that the GM is contemplating coaching the Rangers next season.

Two independent sources yesterday told The Post they had been told that Sather – whose search for a successor to Ron Low has been conducted at a curious pace – is reluctantly coming to the conclusion that he’s the best man to step behind the bench next season.

One source said he had been told that if Sather does return to coaching, he would ask Mark Messier to be an assistant.

Sather, who has not coached since replacing Ted Green for the final 60 games of the Oilers’ 1993-94 season and whose last full season as head coach came in 1988-89, said last month that he would not make a return behind the bench – even when asked to do so by Pavel Bure.

But the hunt for a head coach has hardly been fruitful. And, in a remarkably limited universe of candidates further limited by the GM’s own instincts and comfort zone, it appears that only assistants Dave Lewis of the Red Wings and Bryan Trottier of the Avalanche remain to be interviewed.

Hence, Sather has been forced to revisit the issue.

If Sather – with four Cups and a 462-268-110 record in 842 games as Edmonton coach – does go behind the bench, he would necessarily be obligated to delegate a huge portion of his front office work to assistant GM Don Maloney. Toronto’s Pat Quinn is the only man to currently hold the dual position of GM-coach in the NHL.